There has in recent years been a demand for smaller and lighter electronic devices. Attempts have been made to increase the integration of a semiconductor integrated circuit included in an electronic device in order to, for example, reduce the size of the electronic device. A higher integration of a semiconductor integrated circuit is accompanied by an increase in the number of signals or power input to and output from the semiconductor integrated circuit. Therefore, a semiconductor package is used to efficiently distribute these signals or power.
A semiconductor chip is provided on the substrate of a semiconductor package, and a power supply ring, ground ring, lead frame, and the like are provided around the semiconductor chip. The semiconductor chip includes a plurality of input/output (I/O) cells for receiving and outputting power supply or a signal, which are arranged along an outer perimeter of the semiconductor chip. Here, the I/O cells are divided into power cells for supplying power and signal cells for receiving and outputting a signal. The power cells are connected to the power supply ring or ground ring by a wire, while the signal cells are connected to the lead frame by a wire.
As to a way to arrange I/O cells, a semiconductor integrated circuit has been proposed in which at least two rows of I/O cells are provided and a power cell is provided in a first row, where the row direction is a direction along the outer perimeter of the semiconductor chip, and the first row is a row closer to the outer perimeter (see, for example, Patent Literature 1). This is because if a power cell is provided in a second row, which is farther from the outer perimeter of the semiconductor chip, it is difficult to provide a signal cell in the same column of the first row due to mounting by wire bonding. Specifically, if a signal cell is provided in the same column of the first row, a wire connected to the power cell and a wire connected to the signal cell may cross each other. Therefore, the power cell is typically provided in the first row.